Thunderball
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Living life in the fast lane, Peter needs more excitement when having to watch everyone else in slow motion. Lou's life has been at a standstill for years, yet all she craves is some normality. A school for gifted youngsters might just be able to provide two not so different people with very different things. Quicksilver/OC
1. Ball and Chain

Bored. Peter Maximoff was so _bored_. This was something that was happening more and more often lately and it was really starting to become a problem. Even super speed failed to keep him entertained nowadays. What good was it when you had nowhere to run to?

Even stealing held little interest to him now. He'd built a hobby out of using his gift to thieve sweets and videos games from houses and local stores - he could be in and out of a building before anyone had realised the door had even opened. But it just wasn't the same anymore. He had a taste for much bigger things now and robbing supermarkets just wasn't going to cut it any longer. What he needed was another Pentagon.

That day from two years ago was still burned deep into his memory. Breaking into the Pentagon's high security prison to help free a known murderer had been more than exhilarating - it had been his greatest achievement. Some days he felt like going to break in again just to prove that he could do it on his own this time. But it was over now. That wasn't what he really wanted. What he wanted was something new. Something exciting. Something... impossible.

He just didn't know what that was.

He darted from one end of the table to the other, easily beating the plastic ball there every time. There probably wasn't anyone else who could play ping pong by themselves, especially when he was alternating in between hits to keep up the high score on his retro Pacman game _and_ shooting baskets through the basketball that he'd attached to the wall himself. He completed every circuit without the ball ever hitting the ground.

Until he'd had enough. He always had to be doing multiple things to keep himself busy. It was the only way when the world around you moved so much slower than you ever did. But even that just wasn't enough anymore.

After racking up way more than a thousand points over his previous Pacman high score, he suddenly stopped. The ping pong ball bounced off the table and disappeared somewhere amongst the clutter of the basement. The basketball rolled across the floor, stopping at his feet. And the old arcade game finished with a series of depleted beeps as one of the ghosts chasing Pacman finally caught up.

Peter tossed the ping pong paddle onto the table and threw himself onto one of the couches with his feet elevated. Only mere moments had passed in real time - though it felt more like ten minutes to him - before he was up and moving again. That was the curse of super speed. Things got boring way too quickly.

He began clearing a violent path through the piles of junk, searching eagerly for his old Gameboy instead. At least it had been a while since he'd played that. He located it quickly amongst a stack of comic books. The buttons had been pounded right into the mechanism inside, the edges of the casing worn smooth from where he'd still attempted to keep the old console working. Oh, yeah... He'd forgotten about that.

The Gameboy disappeared back amongst the junk as he searched instead for a slightly newer console that he'd lifted only last week. He didn't even like the games for it - it had just been so easily available for him to take from the front display of the store. As he flipped a pile of magazines aside, something loosened from the pages of one and fluttered down to land at his feet.

He bent to pick it up and turned it over. _Charles Xavier's School for gifted youngsters._ That was what it read, followed by an address and a contact number. _Yes_. Yes, of course. Peter had completely forgotten palming the card that day after they'd left the Pentagon, in the same movement as they'd handed him the keys to their rental car. None of them had noticed a thing. At the time, he hadn't even known why he'd taken it - only that it was something to take. And anything that could be taken might always one day come in handy.

Like this card, for instance. _Gifted youngsters._ Peter was guessing, from what he'd witnessed of Charles's group, that 'gifted' meant people like him. People with powers. Powers that were anything but normal. Maybe this was the kind of excitement that he needed. Hanging around with other people who had powers too certainly sounded like it would be interesting. And maybe on top of that, Charles might have somewhere else fun that he needed breaking into.

In less than a second, he was suddenly ready in his favourite clothes. Pink Floyd tee, comfortable jeans and his trademark silver jacket. His wide belt was kitted out with all his gear - his Walkman and thick rolls of duct tape. A pair of flying goggles now sat atop his untidy hair and in his hand was the strap to a backpack that he'd stuffed full of clothing at lightning speed. He stuffed the gifted youngsters card into his pocket and was then downstairs in the blink of an eye, placing a light kiss on top of his sister's hair, who was currently more interested in the television set.

"Mom, I'm going to boarding school!" he called out all in a rush - the speed he usually spoke at.

"Wait, wait..." Peter's mother came bustling out of the kitchen, looking bewildered. "_Boarding school_?"

Peter showed her the card. "Look, _gifted_ youngsters. It's a school for people like me. It's run by that guy who came here once before. Remember? You thought he was a cop."

As usual, his mother struggled to keep up with him. Why was her son always so problematic? She looked at the card warily. "Peter, if this is another of your tricks..."

"No tricks," Peter promised innocently, tapping the card. "Look, it's la-mi-na-ted." He drew the word out nice and slow, even for him. "That means it's legit."

His mother was still uncertain. "Well, maybe I should be speaking to this headmaster first before you go running anywhere. Besides, you're a little old for..."

"Okay, thanks Mom, gotta go, bye!" Peter said all in one go and was then gone from her sight.

"Peter!" she shouted irritably after him. But with the rucksack slung over one shoulder and his earphones clipped into place, he was already running.

The address on the card was in a neighbouring state. No feat for someone who could run faster than the speed of sound. He stopped occasionally to steal glances at people's road maps or to reprogram the routes on GPS systems in stationary cars. Every pause passed in a quick fire moment - so fast that nobody even saw him. All some people knew was that their GPS was suddenly trying to direct them to a high-rise school that was out of state and completely in the wrong direction to where they were rooming at the Hotel Buena Vista.

Peter's journey took roughly around fifteen seconds with all of his map stops. The same time that it took some people to tie their shoelaces. He stared up at the stately building, only mildly impressed. What did catch his attention, however, were the other people that were milling around, filing in and out of the building. None of them took a second glance at him, even with his strange silver hair and his flashy clothing.

No... Because some of them were even stranger than he was. He watched as two girls came down the main steps and headed out across the grounds. They didn't look out of the ordinary, except for the fact that one of them was levitating a notepad along in front of them. A boy then passed them, walking in the opposite direction, wearing strange high-tech looking glasses that could have come straight from a Star Trek movie. Then not far behind him, hurrying along with his head in a book, was a very hairy guy who was completely blue. _Blue_.

Peter actually stood there for two whole minutes, watching everyone who was passing him by. Two minutes was a long time for him. But it was just all so fascinating. Besides the team he'd helped out at the Pentagon, he'd never known anyone else to have powers before. At times he'd theorised over whether his little sister, Wanda, might have gifts of her own. On several occasions, he could have sworn he'd seen doors close and things move without her touching them, but Wanda didn't even seem aware of it herself and he'd soon forgotten about it after getting distracted by the next thing.

He reckoned it could actually be a while before he could get bored of a place like this. That was definitely what he needed. Now he just needed an in. And seeing as the school was apparently owned by Charles, he was sure that was the only in he'd need. Peter raced into the building, checking the sign on every door and locating Charles Xavier's office on the second floor in mere moments. He didn't bother knocking - he just burst right in and took a seat by the window. He removed his headphones and clipped the two ear pieces back onto his lapels.

Charles Xavier looked up from his desk in surprise. He watched as the door slowly closed again on its own momentum, after having seemingly opened by itself. Yet all that had entered the room was a strong breeze. How peculiar. He'd encountered something similar only once before...

Somebody cleared their throat from the other side of the room and, though he shouldn't have been surprised, Charles jumped slightly nevertheless. Of course, the surprise didn't last long. The vinyl-clad figure lounging in the window seat quickly confirmed everything. There was no mistaking that windswept silver hair. And certainly no mistaking that cocky grin.

"I guess I should have put two and two together straightaway." Charles repressed a smile. He hadn't much liked the silver speedster to begin with, but he'd certainly been invaluable on their last mission together. "It's been quite a while. What can I do for you, Peter?"

"I found this." Peter flipped the card from his pocket and across the room in a lightning move.

It skimmed across the desk, stopping face up just before sliding off the other side. Charles recognised the card. He still used similar ones, since he'd started up the school again. He couldn't stop a little sarcasm from slipping out. "Where; in my wallet?"

Peter just grinned and didn't deny the sly pick-pocketing from that day two years ago. "I wanna enrol at your school."

Charles stared at him in surprise. Of all the things he'd expected him to say, that wasn't one of them. The last time he'd encountered Peter, he'd been under the influence of a drug that had rejuvenated his spinal injury at the price of halting his power. Only now... Confined once more to a wheelchair, Charles allowed his mind to reach out towards the other in the room, gently probing his way inside.

What he found, however, could be described as nothing short of chaos. He caught mere glimpses of certain thoughts - the students he'd passed outside, his haggard-looking mother, his last heist at the candy store for a whole jar of fizzy sweets, a young brown-haired girl, memories of the Pentagon cropping up more than once - and others had passed before he could decipher them. He couldn't keep up with any of it.

Charles drew back, breathing quickly, feeling a little like his mind had just run a marathon. Peter gazed innocently back, unaware of the hectic mess that raged inside his own head. Charles composed himself. "Aren't you a little old for school?"

"Aren't you a little _young_ to be headmaster?" Peter quipped back.

"Touché," Charles conceded. It was true that he was a young prodigy to be running his own school. It was also true that he didn't just take on students of usual schooling age. His school was open to all mutants - whatever age, whatever race, from whatever background. It was a place for them to belong and to learn more about the mutant community, as well as themselves. "So what is it about my school that interests you? I'm afraid it really is just a school. Aren't you concerned that you might get bored here?"

"I'm _already_ bored," Peter lamented, reclining back against the wide window frame. "I thought it might be fun to be around other people, y'know, _like us_. Maybe get to play around with my powers a little..."

"Really?" Charles asked uncertainly. Peter had never needed a reason to 'play around' with his powers before. Did he really just long for company from fellow mutants?

"Aaand maybe if you had anything extra I could help with like, say, another Pentagon job..." Peter suggested casually.

Ah. Now it all made sense. The school wasn't Peter's real interest - he just wanted to be on hand in case of any excitement. But that didn't mean that Charles was going to turn down his request. He'd started his school with the goal of providing a place for all mutants to be accepted and to be helped, when needed. Though nothing like some of the much darker mutants that Charles had come across before, with his kleptomaniac tendencies, Peter was a perfect example of a mutant gone awry. Maybe somewhere that gave him a sense of belonging - or even just being around other mutants - would be what he needed to get him on the straight and narrow.

It was an opportunity that Charles couldn't afford to pass up. He had no reason to, especially when he was currently scouting out new students anyway. Not to mention that he already had an idea in mind for Peter. It might not have been another prison break exactly, but he definitely had a project that he reckoned Peter could prove beneficial to.

Charles sat forward in his seat, lacing his fingers together as he rested his elbows on the desk. "Alright. I can enrol you at the school. We'll have to talk rules and timetables, but there'll be time for that later. And although it may not be another Pentagon, I do actually have something else that you could assist with..."

There was a sudden blur of papers as Charles' work was sent flying off his desk and Peter was then sat in the chair across from him. "Deal," he agreed without hesitation. "So what is it? Something illegal? Another prison break?"

"It's not a prison break," said Charles. "We're going to find someone else like us. Another mutant."

"Mutant..." Peter rolled the word around on his tongue. He'd heard it used before, though mainly as a derogative term. Charles spoke it more casually - almost like it was natural. Peter wasn't too concerned about that. He looked more like he was deliberating over whether the offer was exciting enough or not. "A dangerous one?"

"Most probably, yes," Charles confirmed.

"Count me in."

XXX

"So who exactly are we looking for?"

Charles had forgotten that Peter's mouth was just as erratic as the rest of him. The journey to their destination had been a stream of endless, mostly irrelevant questions. Who was the worst student to have been sent to his office? Had he ever tried to read the mind of the president? Could he send a message to someone's mind through the TV? Did he take a course to be a mutant teacher? If he could have any other power, what would it be? Had he ever been arrested? What was his favourite candy bar?

Charles didn't think he'd ever felt so mentally exhausted. And for a telepath, that was saying something. He'd begun to regret insisting that they travel in a regular fashion, rather than utilising Peter's gift. Getting there within seconds would have meant a lot less questions. But finally, the silver-haired boy had asked something related to the task at hand.

"Her name's Luanna Mercer," he responded. "I'd say she's probably around your age, maybe a little older... But I think she'll make a good candidate as a student."

He'd only started up his search project with Cerebro again over recent years. Everything that had happened with Raven and Eric had been the motivation he'd needed to start doing his part again to help strengthen the mutant community and their appeal to the rest of society. His part had been to restart the school and begin enlisting more students, particularly those who needed it - even if they may not necessarily know that themselves. And with the new adjustments that Hank had made, Cerebro was more efficient than ever. It didn't just help him to locate both dormant and currently active mutants - it gave him more of a profile on their powers, so that he'd know what to expect.

Luanna Mercer was a potential candidate that he'd had to put on hold for a little while. Knowing what to expect from the mutants he was seeking out meant that he could decide what approach to take. But with Luanna, he hadn't known what approach to take. One thing he was sure of was that, no matter her mentality towards anything else, her power was dangerous. Whatever approach he did choose to take would have to be a careful one.

"What can she do?"

Wow. Two consecutive related questions. "She has super strength, if you will. It seems she uses some sort of vessel for it, but it's still likely to be dangerous... We'll have to proceed with caution."

Charles was hoping that Luanna would be interested enough in the school without there being any problems, but the thing with a lot of young mutants was that they often didn't trust other people and they sometimes didn't even trust themselves. With a power like extreme strength, things could get risky if she decided to retaliate. Charles knew that he'd be incredibly pushed to find someone who could stand against her, so he was hoping to rely on Peter's power instead if they needed to turn tail and make a quick escape.

"So I'm the getaway driver for if something goes wrong?" Peter guessed.

"Something like that," Charles admitted. Who was the telepath here? "Well caught."

Peter grinned. "I catch on fast."

Charles located the old, rundown apartment building that the combination of Cerebro and his own abilities had brought him to. They headed up to the top floor their own ways, Peter entertaining himself by zipping up and down the flights of stairs as Charles was forced to use the noisy elevator due to his wheelchair.

Peter blurred into view as the elevator doors opened. "Sixty-eight!" he said triumphantly.

"Congratulations," Charles replied dryly. He really missed walking.

The hallway smelt faintly of stale cigarette smoke. Charles led the way down to the last room on the corridor. A tarnished silver number three was hanging slightly crooked on the door. The second number had either fallen off or been purposely taken, leaving behind a faint imprint of a figure six in the wood. The panel itself looked quite busted - the wood was starting to cave and splinter, the paint coming off in great slivers. A bright gold, round handle that didn't match any of the other doors looked like it could fall off at the slightest touch. It had clearly been replaced recently, but badly. Charles didn't hold out any hopes for the room behind the door being anymore homely.

He knocked gingerly on the damaged door. When there was no response after several tries, he reached out with his mind. She was in there alright. He saw a brief thought of the landlord looking for damage costs cross her mind. "Luanna Mercer?"

"I told you I can get the money by the end of the week!" The response came from somewhere behind the door, the accent touched with a slight Southern twang. "Just leave me alone!"

"I'm not after money," Charles replied. "I just want to talk to you. Can you please open the door?"

They could hear footsteps from inside, as well as something else... It sounded like something very heavy being dragged across the floor. The steps stopped just near the door, but it still didn't open. Charles extended his power just slightly again and saw his own face, distorted, in Luanna's mind as she peered through the peephole. He withdrew and concentrated on composing a pleasant look across his face, attempting to appear non-threatening.

"My name is Charles Xavier and I run a school in Westchester county," he explained. "I just want to talk." When there was still no response he called out again. "Luanna?"

Peter had been standing by, first watching in mild interest, which had then swiftly depleted when nothing had happened. When you saw everything in slow motion, waiting for even just a few seconds grew old very quickly. But even when not paying full attention, his incredibly fine-tuned vision could see something that Charles couldn't, as his eyes picked up the scene in a slow motion frame-by-frame.

To him, the door was beginning to cave in towards them as something heavy was bursting through it very slowly, but he knew that in reality, it was all happening in a split second. He wasted no time in grabbing Charles around the waist, plucking him out of the wheelchair and dragging him out of the way. He raced them both several doors away to safety and deposited Charles ungainly on the floor. With the second he had to spare, he ran back to rescue the wheelchair too, giving it a push and sending it careering down the corridor.

All Charles was aware of was his neck suddenly snapping painfully to the side, as he was lifted bodily from his chair and felt like he was thrown down the corridor. His wheelchair then came hurtling past after him and, as he turned his head, he saw what looked like a wrecking ball come crashing through the door they'd been standing in front of mere moments before, completely demolishing the already wrecked wooden panel.

He only had time to notice that the big metal ball was attached to the end of a long chain that was leading out of the room when he was grabbed again. He was suddenly back in his wheelchair one moment and then both he and Peter were inside Luanna's apartment the next. Nausea rolled in his stomach from the speedy travel, which he hastily quashed as he attempted to process what had just happened.

But if he was confused, then Luanna was more so. As soon as she'd realised that the intruders had somehow managed to get past her, she'd gone into full alert mode, taking on a defensive stance. She was very thin and maybe a little taller than average, though part of her height was made up by a thick, wild, blonde Mohican-style haircut - obviously bleached from the much darker roots where large triangles at the sides of her head had been shaved. The large ball and chain was actually attached to one of her bare ankles.

She didn't seem to be hindered by the weight of it, however. In fact, she was already grabbing for the chain and lifting the ball aloft as if it weighed no more than a grapefruit, ready to start swinging it. Charles could see it straightaway. He could hear it as if her mind was screaming it. She was scared. She didn't know how they'd gotten past her or who they were. She was prepared to fight back - just like he'd wanted to avoid.

"_Wait_!" he objected, throwing his hand out. Though he didn't say it out loud; he said it telepathically instead.

Luanna heard that single word inside her head as clear as day. It surprised her so much that she dropped the iron ball again. The whole floor seemed to shake from the impact and the boards underneath it groaned dangerously. Luanna's hand twitched as if she was going to pick it up again, but she seemed uncertain. One thought was now foremost on her mind. _Am I going crazy?_

"_You're not crazy_," the voice assured her. "_My name is Charles Xavier. I'm different, just like you._"

Luanna stared at the man in the wheelchair. His face was pleasant, perfectly composed. His lips didn't move an inch. "How... How are you doing that?"

"I'm a telepath," this he said out loud. "That's my power, in the way that you have incredible strength."

The look on Luanna's face was nothing short of incredulous. "But... I've never met anyone else with powers before..."

"We're still not exactly accepted within society just yet," Charles explained. "But there are more of us out there than you'd think. We're known as mutants. We each have a genetic mutation within our DNA that blesses us with unique abilities."

Even without using his powers, he could see the wonder in Luanna's blue eyes at this world he was revealing to her. And from just lightly touching against her mind, he knew that her head was suddenly full to the brim of new revelations and questions. She wasn't abnormal after all? Other people had powers too? What powers did everyone else have? Could they help her to control hers better?

"I run a school for gifted youngsters," Charles continued. "We have over fifty other young mutants just like you within our student body. You're really not alone in all of this."

It almost sounded too good to be true. Luanna pulled back slightly, half afraid to trust this strange well-mannered man. As she did, she remembered that there was someone else in the room. Her gaze slid over the boy clad in silver. She inclined her head towards him as she turned back to Charles. "Who's he?"

"This is Peter Maximoff. He's actually my newest student," Charles enlightened. "He's gifted too."

Luanna glanced between the two of them, a little unnerved by the way the silver-haired boy was grinning at her and not saying anything. She chose to still address Charles, whose presence was more reassuring. "What can he do?"

Charles glanced at Peter himself. A hint of amusement touched his lips. "Why don't you try and hit him?"

Luanna looked at him like she hadn't heard him properly. "You mean with this?" She indicated the ball and chain at her feet.

"Precisely," Charles replied. He then wheeled his chair back out of the way to make his point.

Luanna turned to Peter, who didn't seem at all fazed by the idea. In fact, he seemed like he was stood waiting for it. She raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure about this?"

Peter pulled the silver goggles down over his eyes and grinned. "I'm not worried."

"Well, alright, if you say so..."

She grabbed the chain and hoisted the iron ball into the air as easily as picking up a shopping bag. She began to swing it. The effort didn't even tighten the muscles in her shoulders. There wasn't much room in the tiny apartment for her to swing it around properly, like she would have normally done. There was a reason her room was already trashed to hell. She allowed the ball a couple of heavy rotations and then released it, sending it flying towards where Peter was standing.

Of course, it was no concern to Peter. He was gone in a flash of silver before the ball even came near him. As it sailed past and obliterated the remains of a wardrobe against the wall, Peter reappeared behind Luanna and tapped her twice on the shoulder. She jumped and whirled around. "How did you just... Did you teleport or something?"

"He's just very fast," Charles explained. "In the way that you have great strength, Peter has great speed."

The grin had never left Peter's face. "Cool, huh?"

"Yeah... Cool..." Luanna agreed absentmindedly.

The truth was that she was fascinated. Mind blown. A man who could read minds and a boy who could move at the speed of sound. She'd lived her whole lifetime never imagining that there were other people like her. She'd always been led to believe that she was a freak of nature - alone, different and with no possible reason for why she had this unbearable amount of strength within her. Only she wasn't weird at all. She was part of another community that she'd never known existed. For once in her life, there was a possibility that she might actually belong somewhere after all.

Charles didn't need to be a telepath to understand everything she was now realising. Things that could turn a person's entire life around. There were so many young mutants out there who didn't understand anything about other mutants or even about themselves. That was why he did what he did. It was his job to enlighten and help as many mutants as he could. It was his job to give them a home and family.

He wheeled himself over to her. "At my school, we teach our students all about the mutant community, regardless of age. We also try to help every student uncover everything there is to know about their own powers. If you're interested in joining us, Luanna, then we can help you too."

Luanna's head was reeling with possibilities, yet she found herself focusing on one trivial little thing. "Lou."

"I'm sorry?"

"Just call me Lou. I've never really liked Luanna," she said, her mind already trailing away again.

Other mutants, answers to her questions, school... She'd only attended one year of high school before her home life had fallen apart around her. Though this Charles Xavier probably knew that already, seeing as he could read minds. It was all so overwhelming, yet at the same time, she felt she still had to know more. She wanted to know everything. Maybe everything else could be put behind her now that she might actually have a real future to look towards.

"Alright then, Lou," said Charles. "So what do you say?"

There was nothing else to consider. Lou was ready to get out. She was finally ready to leave all of her baggage behind. Well... She glanced down at the ball and chain attached to her leg - her permanent sentence. Maybe not all of it. Maybe some baggage was impossible to break away from. Though, perhaps one day, even that could change.

"I say yes," she replied resolutely. "Let's get out of here."

**XXX**

**Author's Note!**

Yup, another new/not-exactly-new-but-another-I-started-before-NaNoWriMo story. So apparently I have a bit of a thing for speedsters... Come on though, Quicksilver is blatantly the best thing about Days of Future Past. Plus super speed is totally just one of my ideal super powers!

I wanted to write about X Academy back in the good old days when it's first starting out. I also wanted to write about Quicksilver in his younger days - maybe a little older than in Days of Future Past, but still definitely a wayward son needing some bending into shape... It seemed all too obvious to put the two together ;)

I'll confess now that I'm a movie nerd. This story is pertaining to more of a timeline similar to the movie events, so if there's plot holes regarding the comics... then I'm clearly not aware of them!


	2. Getting The Ball Rolling

Lou stared at the four walls around her - unfamiliar, alien - and suddenly, she felt the overwhelming sensation like she was caged again. She hastily propped open the door that joined onto the corridor, then ran to the window and threw it wide open, looking out onto the campus of the school. X Academy, as she'd been told it was called.

She half sat, half knelt on the small window seat underneath it and rested her face on top of her arms, leaning against the sill of the window as she looked out at the world below her. So much of her life had suddenly changed in just the last few hours. A whole new world had been opened up to her today. A world that she'd apparently belonged to all along - she just hadn't known it had existed.

If only she had sooner. Her life would have been so much easier if there'd been someone to help her through it. And maybe she wouldn't have even ended up with this stinking ball and chain. Though the large hunk of metal bore no physical weight to her, the psychological weight of its permanent fixture was often crippling.

Lou pushed the thought away and tried to distract her attention with the people on the grounds below her. Things were going to change now, she told herself. Things _had_ to change. Surely she was overdue on a bit of ease in her life.

XXX

Since Charles had wanted to initiate Lou himself, he'd needed somebody else to show Peter around. He'd never had two separate students enrol on the same day before - there'd been a pair of electricity wielding twins, but of course, they'd stayed together - but thankfully, he did have a trusted colleague in mind who could help out. Someone who also knew Peter from their past escapades with the Pentagon.

"Peter, I need to ask you to wait here in my office," he'd informed the speedster before taking Lou on a tour of the academy. "I'm going to pass you over to Hank - he'll be showing you around."

"Hank. Cool," said Peter indifferently. He too remembered Hank from two years ago.

"Don't steal anything whilst you're waiting," Charles added as an afterthought. He tapped the side of his head. "I'll know if you do."

Peter just grinned at him in response. Lou gave him a curious backwards glance as Charles gestured for her to go ahead, so he saluted her as she left. He wanted to stay on Charles's good side for now at least, so he honoured his request and left the room untouched. Well, untouched as in he left everything where it was. Whilst he waited, he had a quick flick through some of the folders on top of the filing cabinet in the corner and a stack of old detention slips on the desk. Maybe he could find some of the naughty students to befriend.

He wasn't waiting long before there was a firm knock at the door. He zoomed to answer it, taking barely a split second to pull the door open. Standing before him was the same blue man that he'd seen crossing the campus earlier with his head buried in a book. Up close, Peter could now see that the stocky man was not only blue; he was incredibly hairy - like a magical beast from a storybook. He was wearing a small pair of spectacles and a mildly taken aback expression.

"Hey, Peter," he then greeted, much to the silver speedster's surprise. "I forget how fast you are! Come on, I'll show you around."

Though Peter didn't recognise him other than from seeing him outside earlier, the blue man's obvious familiarity could only mean one thing. "Hank?" he asked incredulously. "What happened to you?"

Hank bristled. It was obviously a sore subject. "This is how I am," he said shortly.

Even Peter was smart enough not to press further. "Wow. I mean... You just look like you have a serious case of the blues."

All annoyance passed, Hank simply rolled his eyes. "Like I haven't heard that one before."

Hank showed him around the entirety of the campus. Peter's dark eyes took everything in with great interest. The grounds were extensive - including wide, sweeping lawns, wooded areas around the outskirts, large fountains and a basketball court. Now that he was paying attention to the building itself, rather than the students around him, he could appreciate just how big the academy was. It looked like it had once been some kind of mansion or stately home. There were corridors of dormitories on the top floor and classrooms on the floors below, as well as extra study rooms, offices, two libraries, a dining hall and the kitchens.

It was all very impressive. Peter was sure that the school alone, even without the tasks he hoped to glean from Charles, would hold his interest for quite a while. He could deal with the bore of classes for that. There was still so much to see and so many mutants with unique powers that he wanted to know more about. He should have done this sooner.

Hank was just explaining about how there were set mealtimes organised through the day, but that they always had cooks on hand for any students that needed to run on a different schedule - apparently, one boy had photosensitivity caused by his powers and could only venture out of his room when it was dark, then another required more frequent meals throughout the day, as his abilities constantly sapped at his energy like it was on tap - when Peter heard a voice.

"Peter, when you're done with your tour of the school, I'd like you to return to my office please."

Peter stopped dead in his tracks. There wasn't much that could surprise him, particularly that could bring him to a complete standstill, but that had. He recognised the voice - it had belonged to Charles - what was so unusual was that it had sounded like the voice had been inside his own head. He even looked around but, like he'd already guessed, the headmaster was nowhere around.

Hank noticed him stop. It was hard not to - the speedster had been steps ahead of him the entire time. "What is it?"

"I heard Charles... like he was in my head."

"Well, yeah, that's what Charles does," said Hank dismissively, like it wasn't even strange to him. Peter had known that the abilities Charles had were linked to mind reading, but it was the first time he'd actively experienced it himself. "What did he say?"

"He wants me to go back to his office when we're done."

"Well, this was the last stop." Hank gestured to the dining hall around them. "Do you need me to show you the way back or do you remember where it is?"

"It's cool; I remember." Peter then grinned. "You'd just slow me down."

And just like that, he was gone again. Like before, he didn't bother knocking on the door to Charles's office - he just zoomed straight in, ending up in the chair facing the desk. Despite himself, Charles jumped again. He saw a lot of strange things on a daily basis, but he had a feeling that this was one that would take a little getting used to. He was definitely going to have to get Peter into the habit of knocking first, at least.

"Right. Now that you know your way around, we can get down to business," said Charles. "Since you're technically an adult already, I won't need to speak to your mother about you applying to the school. I'll get you enrolled in classes and have a timetable printed for you."

"And let me know when you have any other jobs for me to do," Peter reminded.

"That too," Charles conceded. "In the meantime, I do have a task I'd like you to oversee whilst at school."

"What is it?" asked Peter, interested already.

"I know you're new as well, but I'd like you to keep an eye on Lou for a little while. See she settles in okay," said Charles. "From what I can tell, she isn't particularly sociable."

"How do you know?" Charles just put a finger to his head. "Ah."

"It's going to be a very different lifestyle for her and not just from a mutant's perspective."

"So... you want me to babysit?" Peter couldn't quite mask his disappointment. It wasn't exactly the kind of task he'd been hoping for.

Charles either didn't notice or he pretended not to. "Lou's powers seem to be linked quite intricately to her emotions. As you've seen for yourself, her powers can be quite destructive. There aren't many students here who could stand up against her if things ever got out of hand. At least I know that with your abilities, you'd be able to make a quick getaway before it even came to that."

Peter looked thoughtful. "So you're saying it could be dangerous?" That definitely made the idea more appealing to him.

Charles could tell that he'd successfully interested him now. Just like he'd known would happen. Peter's mind was still too erratic for him to get a good read on, but you didn't need to be a mind reader to know that the speedster fell into the category of adrenaline junkie. "Very much so."

"Alright," Peter agreed. A girl with a lethal ball and chain as a weapon seemed like an acceptable candidate for his first friend at school.

"I was hoping you'd agree. I've already arranged for your dorm to be next door to hers," Charles explained. He'd clearly already predicted the outcome. "I don't want to isolate Lou, but I also must protect my students, so you'll find that several of the rooms around you are empty on that part of the corridor."

"What; did you get some of the students to switch rooms?"

"No. I just had a section of empty rooms available for an occasion such as this," said Charles knowingly. When Peter raised silver eyebrows at him, he added, "Lou won't be the last mutant who can't fully control her powers, but just because she doesn't have control now doesn't mean she can't be taught."

"Huh. So what's the deal with the ball and chain anyway?" Peter asked.

"I'm not the one you should be asking about that." Charles had only gently tapped her mind, so he hadn't learnt the reason for that himself, but even if he had known, he wouldn't have shared the information. That wasn't his place to do so. "But try and maintain a little tact. Know that, for some mutants, their abilities can be a very sore subject."

"Sure, sure," replied Peter, making Charles wonder if he was listening at all. But then there was only so much you could lead a horse to water.

"I'll get a timetable of your classes sent to your room. So in the meantime, just keep out of trouble. And don't steal anything from any of the students." A stern finger was pointed Peter's way, as Charles hastily remembered to correct himself. "Or any of the teaches, for that matter."

Peter grinned. "Don't worry. That'd be _too_ easy." Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone again, sending the stack of detention slips flying in his wake.

Charles didn't even sigh as he watched the papers flutter to the floor. "Don't be too sure," he muttered to himself in amusement.

X Academy had grown a lot since it had first started and there were a lot of mutants here who certainly wouldn't be easy to steal from. Hopefully, Peter wouldn't figure that out - the boy clearly couldn't resist a challenge. It was one of the reasons Charles had trusted him with the task of looking out for the girl who might possibly be one of his most dangerous students yet. If anything, he just had to hope he wasn't stoking the fire. It would be ironic, and not entirely implausible, if Peter drove her mad with his constant questioning.

As it was, questions were exactly what was on Peter's mind. He always had a million of them on hand. Quite literally. Many people didn't realise it, but Peter Maximoff was actually very intelligent. He processed information faster than anyone else could comprehend. It was why he was always more than ready to know the next thing. He liked information. Information was useful and he could never get enough of it.

The school was large, but it was easy enough for Peter to get back to the dorm that Hank had shown him to earlier. Charles had said that Lou's room was next door to his. It wasn't hard to tell which - it was the only one with the door propped open. Lou was sitting at the window, looking out onto the grounds, so he zipped in to sit next to her, startling her so much that she almost fell out of the open window.

"Don't do that!" she protested, putting a hand to her chest. The other had reached instinctively for the chain attached to her ankle, but she stopped and let it fall to her side. "I'm not the kind of person you should sneak up on."

"You wouldn't have been able to hit me with that," Peter said confidently, having noticed her movement.

Lou glanced back out of the window. They were three storeys up. "Well, you could have made me fall out."

"I would have caught you before you did," Peter claimed, still with that same sureness.

Lou couldn't help but give him a curious look. "You're really _that_ fast?"

Peter grinned. "You want a demonstration?"

"No thanks. I think I've already got enough to wrap my head around," Lou insisted, rubbing her temples. Peter put his feet up on the window seat, giving her hardly any room at all. "Um, so what exactly are you doing in here?"

"Well, we're both new, right?" Peter pointed out. Even he knew better than to admit that the idea had come from Charles. "And my dorm's next door, so I figured we could stick together."

Lou was surprised. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd had friends. It had been just her for so long now. She'd never felt safe to get close to anyone, but this strange boy clearly didn't think she'd be a threat to him. "Oh, err, sure."

"Plus your powers are pretty cool," Peter added.

Lou glanced down at the heavy metal ball. "Huh. I'm not so sure about that."

Peter's gaze followed hers. "So what's the deal with the ball and chain anyway?" he asked, casting aside the little tact he had.

Lou shrugged, trying to act indifferent. "It's a vessel to use my strength through. Otherwise I can't control it."

"It still doesn't seem like you can control it much," Peter pointed out. She gave him a sour look and he raised his hands in defence. "I'm just saying the room we found you in looked pretty trashed."

Lou couldn't really argue against that. "I suppose I do get frustrated easily," she admitted. "I don't really know any other way to vent."

"I guess that's what they'll teach you here."

"Probably." Lou didn't seem to be much of a talker. Peter wasn't sure if she was done with the conversation, but then she asked, "So what about you? Did he come to find you too?"

'He' obviously meant Charles. "Not this time. He found me a while ago - he wanted my expertise for something."

"Like what?" Lou asked curiously.

Peter just grinned again. "It's top secret."

Lou rolled her eyes. The silver speedster gave across the image that he enjoyed annoying people. "You said that was a while ago, but I thought you were meant to be new?"

"I am. I came here myself just today," said Peter.

"Why?" He was too old to just be attending school and he didn't seem like classes would interest him much.

"Have you not seen how interesting this place is?" Peter exclaimed, gesturing out of the window.

Lou's gaze followed the line of his hand out and down onto the grounds, where there were still students passing by. Peter wasn't wrong. The students here all seemed highly interesting. She'd spent the last hour watching them from her window and had seen a girl walk across the surface of the water in one of the large fountains, another girl pass entirely through another student like she was a ghost and she could have sworn she'd seen someone _flying_ in the distance.

"Whoa, check out that guy!" Peter exclaimed suddenly, leaning past her.

Lou had to nudge him out of the way so that she could see where he was pointing. Walking along and talking to who seemed to be the ghost girl that she'd seen earlier was a tall, bulky guy who looked like his entire form was made up of metal. The dimming sunlight glinted strongly off his shoulders. For the first time in her life, Lou felt distinctly normal.

"We should go and have a look around ourselves," Peter decided. He'd suddenly gone from sitting to standing. "Rather than tours from the teachers."

Lou glanced back outside uncertainly. The students all seemed to be heading towards the main building. "They look like they're all going to class. Are we allowed to be wandering around whilst it's in session?"

"Who cares?" Peter shrugged. "We haven't started classes yet and it beats sitting in our dorms. Besides, we can make it quick."

Lou raised her eyebrows, but she obligingly got to her feet. "You mean you can be quick."

Peter grinned. "No. _We_ can be quick."

Lou was aware of him moving up beside her, putting one hand on her arm and the other on the back of her head, then there was suddenly a sharp pain in her ankle as she was dragged forward and the weight of the ball and chain immediately yanked her straight back. Peter went careering across the room with such speed that he actually hit the opposing wall.

"What the hell?" Lou protested, bending to rub her ankle inside the metal cuff. "I'd still like to have use of this leg if you don't mind."

Peter looked completely stunned. "What just... How heavy _is_ that thing?"

Lou shrugged her shoulders. "Try lifting it if you want."

His face was unsure, giving Lou the impression that there wasn't much that could flummox him. He crossed back over to her at a normal pace, grabbed a handful of the chain and gave it a tentative tug. When nothing happened, he tried again with both hands, then again with all of his strength. The metal ball didn't budge. Lou watched his increasing attempts with amusement until he gave up.

"You pick it up again," he told her, like he'd maybe imagined her doing it before.

That amused Lou even more. "Sure." She wound her fingers around the chain and lifted the ball easily, not even the slightest strain showing in her shoulders.

Peter frowned. "That can't be possible..."

"It's just not heavy to me," said Lou, nonplussed, swinging the ball back and forth like a pendulum. It had been at one point in her life, but not anymore. Nobody else had ever tried to lift it before, but she'd guessed what the outcome would be. Though it bore no burden to her, she had an idea what the weight of it must be like after seeing the damage it could cause.

Peter was still frowning, giving Lou the idea again that he wasn't used to being felled by something. "I wonder..."

The next thing she knew, he'd grabbed her again and within mere seconds, they were outside on the grounds, the journey through the school having blitzed past her eyes like she'd just been pulled through a vortex. They stopped abruptly and Lou dropped the metal ball onto the ground with a loud thud as nausea hit her, her stomach roiling so violently that she had to put a hand to her mouth.

"Oh my god..." she gasped between her fingers. "_Please_ give me more warning next time."

"Sorry," said Peter, though what appeared to be his trademark grin suggested that he wasn't sorry at all. He seemed happier now that he'd found a way around the problem. "Looks like I can still run you along with me as long as you're holding the ball up yourself."

"In that case, it can stay on the ground," Lou said ruefully. She could still feel the bile high in the back of her throat. "Urgh, I think I might be sick..."

"Put your head between your knees," Peter advised cheerfully. "It'll pass."

Groaning, Lou did as he said, leaning forward and taking several deep breaths. Eventually, the feeling did diminish. "How does that not bother you?"

"It's normal to me. I'm used to the speed."

Lou guessed that speed was nothing to him in the way that weight was to her. This whole mutant thing was going to take a lot of getting used to and she'd only spoken to two of them so far. She straightened up, reaching for the chain as she did so. "Can we please keep the rest of the tour to a regular pace?"

"That's not as fun," Peter pouted.

"I mean it," Lou insisted, hoisting the metal ball up. It was a lot more noticeable when she just left it to drag along the ground. Plus it would probably ruin the school's immaculate lawn. "Try moving me at super speed again and I'll drop this on your foot so you can't run anywhere."

Peter smirked, amused. "You can try."

However, he did heed Lou's warning and conceded to walk at a regular speed. He was much more interested in exploring the interior of the school than the grounds. Lou wasn't really fussed either way and obligingly followed. She was just happy to be out of her room, so that the caged feeling couldn't come back. She knew that she could have chosen to leave it at any point herself, but she also knew that she wouldn't have. She was worried what people would think of her. She always needed that extra push. Even so, she was still grateful that everybody else seemed to be in class. She was sure that she and Peter would look an odd sight - the boy with silver hair and the girl with the ball and chain.

Despite its purpose, X Academy came across as just an ordinary school, albeit a high market one. Lou looked around in only mild interest on her second tour, but it didn't take her long to realise that Peter seemed to be looking for something. He was scanning every door and every wall meticulously. "What exactly are you hoping to find?"

"Just looking around," was his casual response.

Lou wasn't so sure. That feeling only increased when he stopped at one of the ground level doors and rattled the handle. "What are you doing?"

"This door's locked," said Peter, trying it again. He seemed excited.

"Probably for a reason," Lou pointed out obviously. "I thought these were just the teachers' offices?"

Peter shook his head, standing back and glancing up and down the corridor. "From outside, you can see that this part of the building stretches a way back - much more space than just offices. But we've walked all around here and there doesn't seem to be any way to get to that section."

So he had been looking for something. "And you think this door is it? What are you; some criminal mastermind?" Peter just grinned and produced a safety pin from one of his pockets, by way of an answer. He then fed it into the door lock. "Hey! You're gonna get us kicked out before we've even started!"

"It's not like we're here to take anything," said Peter innocently, as the door swung open. "We're just having a look around."

"It's still breaking and entering," Lou protested. Despite her objections, she still followed him inside. She wasn't willing to throw away her first friendship so soon.

All that was behind the door was an empty, completely unfurnished corridor, the walls painted but left bare. Lou expected Peter to be disappointed by the boring find, but he spotted the almost invisible doorway at the end of the corridor that blended into the wall before she did. He zipped down the hall to inspect it. Lou had to jog after him. She didn't think she'd ever get used to how fast he could move.

The door led down a curved set of stairs that took them onto another corridor underground, which directed them back the way they'd just come from. This corridor was even plainer, white-washed and looked almost futuristic. The air was cool and their footsteps echoed eerily in the otherwise silent space. What exactly was down here and just what possible reason could it have for sitting underneath a school? At the end of the corridor were large metal doors that resembled a high security bank vault. It was protected by an electronic keypad that was fixed into the wall beside it.

Doors like that were only used for two things. To keep people out or to keep people in. The first option was probably more likely, but Lou was visited by the horrible idea that maybe this was where they kept the mutants who simply couldn't be taught control, no matter how much they tried. The idea made sense, considering where they were. She found that her hands were shaking at the possibility that maybe one day, she'd end up in there if she couldn't learn to control her powers.

"I really don't think we should be down here," she told Peter uncertainly, who was inspecting the keypad.

"Well, it wouldn't be half as fun if we were allowed to be here," Peter replied. He gestured towards the doors. "You fancy taking a swing at them?"

"No way," Lou objected. Though she was sure her ball and chain would stand a good chance at breaking through with a few hits, it didn't mean that she wanted to try.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Didn't think so." He then began furiously keying in numbers on the keypad, his hand blurring like the wings of a hummingbird.

"Err, what are you doing?"

"Trying out every possible combination," Peter replied brightly, his fingers still whizzing across the keypad.

Lou nervously gripped the chain tighter. They were so going to get into trouble. She just wasn't sure if it would be because they were going to get caught out by a teacher first or because the doors were going to open and they'd find something inside that they really didn't want to find.

As it turned out, it was the former. Back in Charles's office, there was a knock at the door. "Come in," he called from behind his desk.

Hank let himself in, his expression torn between annoyance and amusement. "I just thought I'd let you know we've had a breach downstairs. Someone's trying to get into Cerebro."

It didn't take a genius to figure out who. Charles groaned and rubbed his temples. "I should have known. He's barely been here two minutes and he's already looking for trouble."


End file.
